Art and Photography

B&H Photo Purchase Delivered To Canada

  • Last Updated:
  • Feb 27th, 2017 1:58 pm
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Deal Addict
Oct 17, 2004
1573 posts
168 upvotes
jstyle wrote: I purchased an item from B&H and it came from Etobicoke. I paid customs & duties prior thinking it would be coming from the states... Sorry for the lack of better words but this seems like a scam. I emailed them and they said since the item is not directly drop shipped and it comes from them this is why they charge customs. Which makes no sense, I would be charged customs if they DID drop ship directly to me because it is crossing the border. At this point it did not cross the border it came from Etobicoke. So they are just dumping their costs on to me, no other business operates like this. You as a business should eat the importing costs, if you include it in the item price thats fine but you can't charge people extra on top and call it "customs & duty fees". Im wondering if I selected to pay for it after wards I would have not had to pay anything?
Every business operates that way, they simply hide it in the prices. International sites like B&H don't know what the viewer will do when they get to the checkout.

If you'd bothered to read their page on Canada shipping you'd know exactly what they do - https://www.bhphotovideo.com/find/HelpC ... jsp#canada
Sr. Member
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Jun 19, 2005
786 posts
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luthair wrote: Every business operates that way, they simply hide it in the prices. International sites like B&H don't know what the viewer will do when they get to the checkout.

If you'd bothered to read their page on Canada shipping you'd know exactly what they do - https://www.bhphotovideo.com/find/HelpC ... jsp#canada
so with your logic, they already added into the price of the product, the import fees they incurred when they bought the items from the manufacturer. and they made me pay for it once more. so they collected duties and taxes twice. That's called a scam. Customs fees are incurred when you buy something Overseas, and it comes across the border. because when you buy things outside of Canada you are not paying HST. Not only did I pay HST, + The Customs & Duties fees they charged me upfront. I probably also paid for the hidden operating costs and import fees they added into the price of the item.

Im not complaining because it wasn't a lot of money but the item was shipped from Etobicoke while they made it seem like it was coming from the US. Now im 100% sure that if I opted to NOT pay for the duties upfront I probably would have not been charged anything. and It seems like these "duty" fees are a quick cash grab for Purolator. Im wondering what would Canadian Border Service Agency would say if I brought this up to them.
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Mar 6, 2003
19713 posts
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Ottawa
I just bought a computer and it arrived no problem from BH. I chose to prepay the duties/taxes and everything went smoothly.

The computer was $1000USD, and with the prepaid option, my fees were basically the HST + a small fee $6

The computer was shipped from the US, but it basically showed no updates in the tracking until it gets to the warehouse in Etobicoke.
So it was shipped Friday, it was here Tuesday. That's fast considering I was expecting the indicated 4-8 business days .
They even double boxed it even though it didn't really need it and the box was in good shape. I find Purolator seems to treat the packages a bit better than UPS.

Delivered
Tuesday, January 31, 2017 12:47
Origin signature not required
Service: Purolator Ground
Est. Shipment Weight:27 lb.
Shipment Date:Jan 27, 2017

From Etobicoke, ON, CA
To Ottawa, ON, CA

Jan 31, 2017 12:47 Ottawa, ON Shipment delivered at: AT DOOR
Jan 31, 2017 8:16 Ottawa, ON On vehicle for delivery
Jan 30, 2017 23:01 Toronto Sort Ctr/ctr Tri, ON Departed sort facility
Jan 30, 2017 22:48 Toronto Sort Ctr/ctr Tri, ON Arrived at sort facility
Jan 30, 2017 22:47 Toronto Sort Ctr/ctr Tri, ON Picked up by Purolator
Jan 28, 2017 2:09 Metro Ny Terminal Arrived at sort facility
Jan 27, 2017 13:21 Purolator Shipping label created with reference(s):

I did find it strange that signature was not required though. Not sure if that is standard policy.
Last edited by warpdrive on Feb 8th, 2017 8:31 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Deal Addict
Oct 17, 2004
1573 posts
168 upvotes
jstyle wrote: so with your logic, they already added into the price of the product, the import fees they incurred when they bought the items from the manufacturer. and they made me pay for it once more. so they collected duties and taxes twice. That's called a scam. Customs fees are incurred when you buy something Overseas, and it comes across the border. because when you buy things outside of Canada you are not paying HST. Not only did I pay HST, + The Customs & Duties fees they charged me upfront. I probably also paid for the hidden operating costs and import fees they added into the price of the item.
No, because duties are the cost of clearing customs (its not free) and just because they may have been charged a tariff importing into the USA doesn't mean that Canada won't have its own tariffs. Even if that weren't true it wouldn't have been a scam because its fully disclosed up front to you the costs of them clearing it.

jstyle wrote: Im not complaining because it wasn't a lot of money but the item was shipped from Etobicoke while they made it seem like it was coming from the US. Now im 100% sure that if I opted to NOT pay for the duties upfront I probably would have not been charged anything. and It seems like these "duty" fees are a quick cash grab for Purolator. Im wondering what would Canadian Border Service Agency would say if I brought this up to them.
It is coming from the US, again read the page - they take one shipment across the border each day (which decreases broker costs) then ship the package to you from within Canada.
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Mar 6, 2003
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luthair wrote: It is coming from the US, again read the page - they take one shipment across the border each day (which decreases broker costs) then ship the package to you from within Canada.
yup, because that's what happened to me. The From says Etobicoke but the package came from NYC
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Feb 3, 2010
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New York
Some US distributors, including Nikon USA, place geographic limits on their authorized US retailers. For example, shipping a ndew Nikon dslr to any address outside the USA is not permitted. We regret these limitations and the inconvenience they cause our customers.
Henry Posner
B&H Photo-Video
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Aug 28, 2007
1163 posts
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Vancouver
Mine came from Etobicoke as well but the tracking started in New York.

I'm guessing they have a distribution warehouse there where the orders come in larger shipments and then distributed in Canada. Duties will still need to get paid as the item is coming from the US to Canada. I think it's better and faster for the consumer that they're doing it this way as opposed to shipping from the US.

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